VooDoo Follies (21 page)

Authors: Christine M. Butler

Tags: #vampires, #ghosts, #fantasy, #paranormal, #magic, #young adult, #witches, #voodoo

BOOK: VooDoo Follies

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"Seraphine, I'm sorry, I didn't mean
for..."

Before Trevor could finish that thought the
door was thrown open and there stood Vampire Dave. I looked from
him to Stephen who had looked up from the bed.

"No!" I shouted. I knew that look. Stephen was
welcoming death. He wanted to come back to us, only he forgot that
he was only an unknown spirit because of the circumstances
surrounding his death. If Dave killed him here and now, it may not
result in the same thing. "No, you will not die! You will not throw
this second chance away for anything."

"Well, well, well" Vampire Dave turned to me,
"what an interesting turn of events. It almost makes everything
worth it to see you standing there so..." he paused more for
dramatic effect than anything else, "dead."

The look on Stephen's face was pure torture
for my soul. I had no time to think about it though. I had no time
to think about anything. I was moving, out of Trevor's grasp,
before I thought everything through. I just knew I had to get to
Stephen before Vampire Dave did. "You can not have him!"

Dave had hold of Stephen's throat before I
could get to him. "You're too late."

"Nooo!" I screamed and threw myself at the
vampire, expecting to knock him off balance, something, anything
except what actually happened. I suddenly found myself grasping
Stephen's neck, cutting off his air supply. His eyes were large
with surprise, but welcoming of the death that was coming. I was
shocked into action. I dropped my hand and with the release,
Stephen fell sputtering back to the bed. I looked around and found
a wide-eyed Trevor standing there staring at me. I looked down and
realized I had taken over Vampire Dave's body. I felt him pushing
me from the inside. He was trying to get me out, but I had
something to do first.

"Stephen," I said, the words coming out in the
foreign, male voice of Vampire Dave's. "You can not throw this
chance away."

Stephen blinked up at me, confused.

"It's Seraphine," I said smiling down on him.
I'm not sure how the look came over on Vampire Dave's face because
Stephen looked more startled than anything. "You can't throw this
away," I reached my hand up to touch his face and he shrunk away a
little, not trusting that Dave wasn't screwing with him. "I was
awake that night my mom caught you in my room. I heard what you
told her." For a moment the fear left his eyes and he seemed
pained, "you said, 'I know how impossible things seem and I still
can't help the way I feel when I am with her.'" I was crying now,
and it probably wasn't a very attractive feature on a vampire, but
I wiped away the tears, the blood, with the back of Dave's own hand
and I continued on, "'I know, my body is dead and gone, but I have
to hope for something more than this.'"

"You really did hear me," Stephen said,
standing in front of me. I cupped his face in my hands and kissed
his forehead.

"Please, don't lose yourself. I gave up to
much. Hope is there, in the darkest corners, when things don't feel
like they will ever be normal again. I will be there, watching,
hoping, and looking for a way that we can be together again." He
tilted his face away from me, unable to hide behind the beautiful
golden brown locks of his old body. Now he was stuck in Trevor's
for better or worse with nothing to hide behind. I tilted his face
back up to mine. "Please, you have to promise me that you won't
give up. You have to fight for both of us now." I let go and
doubled over. "He's pushing me out, you need to kill him before he
does."

"How the hell do you kill a vampire?" Stephen
yelled.

"Same way they do in the movies, I guess. Wood
through the heart should work." I pointed to the end table in the
room and watched as Stephen broke the table and held up the jagged
piece of wooden table leg. I nodded at him to go ahead, but he
hesitated and Vampire Dave began to push harder, knowing what was
coming if he didn't.

"NOW!" I yelled.

"Seraphine!"

"Seraphine!" Both Trevor and Stephen yelled my
name. It was the last thing I heard and then there was a searing
white heat and then a vast nothingness as the wood connected with
Vampire Dave's heart.

****

I woke up with a pounding in my head like a
freight train had just run through it. Every bit of my body
throbbed and tingled as if electrified by something. My throat was
beyond dry, a sensation I never expected to experience as a ghost.
I opened my eyes and looked around, unfamiliar with where I was.
The last thing I remembered was being in Trevor's hospital room
with Stephen, and then... then everything was fuzzy. When I looked
down at myself I realized I was in my own hospital room. I reached
up and touched the soft, unruly curls that were always the bane of
my existence. I touched my face, and the memories started rolling
back through me. I had died, but this couldn't be death. It hurt
too much.

"Seraphine!" My Auntie Perrine and my momma
walked through the door to my room. "Oh my God, Seraphine!" My mom
collapsed on top of me, hugging me and kissing me. "We didn't know
if you were going to come back to us." I looked into the pained
eyes of my mother and then to my Auntie who was crying
hysterically.

"Please, don't cry," I tried to say, but it
didn't come out quite the way I expected. My dried throat was
thwarting my attempts to speak.

"Seraphine?" The voice that came from beyond
my Aunt, over by the door, caught me by surprise. It was Trevor and
when both my mom and my aunt turned to look at him I knew it wasn't
actually Trevor, but Stephen. He bypassed everyone in the room and
came straight to me, grabbed me up in a hug, that while welcome,
hurt like hell. I embraced the pain because it meant I was really
here. He kissed me, my first real kiss. When we broke apart I could
only form one thought.

"How?"

His answer was just as simple as it was
puzzling, "I don't know."

***

Epilogue

None of us knew what happened or how I ended
up back in my body. All we knew for sure was that we were all very
thankful. Trevor was gone. He had spoken to my mom before I had
woken up, and she promised to tell me about that conversation when
I was ready for it. I wasn't sure I would ever be ready for that
conversation, but it was time to hear it.

"Momma, it's time," I said to her as we stood
in the kitchen of our house in Rosedale. "What happened to
Trevor?"

My mom sighed and put down the dish she was in
the process of rinsing. She dried her hands on the towel and walked
over to the kitchen table. "Come, sit down." I did as she asked and
sat down beside her before she continued. "Seraphine, Trevor blamed
himself for what happened to you."

"He what?"

"Let me finish, without interruption please."
I nodded my assurance that she could finish without interruption,
"based on what he told me, he's probably right. During the
ceremony, when he was supposed to be concentrating on relinquishing
his human body to Stephen, he was, but he was also wishing to be
with you." She grabbed hold of my hands and held me as she
continued. "We think it was that wish, combined with the imbalance
of power that threw a charge at you, causing you to collapse. I'm
not sure how you made it back to yourself, none of us are, but when
we realized you were back, Trevor left me with this message to give
to you. He typed it on the laptop and I had it printed. I didn't
think it was right for me to read it. It was meant for you." My mom
went to her purse and grabbed a folded sheet of paper out of it.
"Go on and read it alone, if you like."

I took the paper to my room and sat down on my
bed, not sure if I wanted to know what it contained. I opened it
anyway, because I had to know and because I owed that much to
Trevor for giving Stephen and I a chance.

Seraphine,

I am so sorry that I nearly cost
you everything for my own selfishness.

You have to understand that I
never meant for you to be hurt. Tina told us that day in her room
about the spell she put on you. I was sure that it meant that you
and I were supposed to be together. It was obvious when I saw you
with Stephen in that hospital room that I wasn't the guy you were
supposed to end up with. I knew then, because I was too hard headed
to see it sooner, that the only reason that spell worked the way it
did was because you were meant to end up with me in body, just not
in spirit. How was I to know that putting Stephen into my body
would actually work?

I thought it might be a bit
confusing to have two of me hanging around, so I am taking off, and
going to see the world. I mean, I have forever, might as well start
now, right? You are such an amazing person, Seraphine, make sure he
treats you right. And if you ever end up in my world again, I will
be waiting!

Love forever,

Trevor

"Seraphine?" Stephen was knocking lightly on
my door, waiting for me to answer. I folded the paper back up
gently and put it inside my jewelry box. Then I turned to Stephen,
who's hair had grown out some in the past couple months since
everything happened. "Are you ready for school?"

"Yeah, almost," I said as I grabbed my bag.
"It's the beginning of senior year, I wouldn't miss it for the
world!" Stephen hugged me close and we kissed before leaving my
room. I owed Trevor more than he would ever know. I looked at
Stephen and knew we both owed Trevor, because he gave us both a
second chance at our lives and we weren’t about to waste a moment
of it.

***

About the Author

Christine's favorite holiday is Halloween. She
has always loved the world of fantasy and often wished for own pet
unicorn when she was a child. Even though she never got her unicorn
Christine still believes in magic, faeries, and all the things that
go bump in the night. After all, they exist in her
imagination!

When Christine M. Butler isn't off in one of
her made-up worlds she lives with her four children in South
Carolina.

You can find out more about her and the books
she writes on her website:

http://www.moonlitdreams.org

You can find out more about The VooDoo Follies
at:

http://voodoofollies.moonlitdreams.org/

You can also find out more about The Awakening
Trilogy, also written by Christine, here:

http://awakeningtrilogy.moonlitdreams.org/

***

Book Recommendations

A few books recommended by Christine M. Butler
from the young adult, fantasy/paranormal genres:

The Gifts Trilogy by Patria
Dunn-Rowe

http://giftstrilogy.moonlitdreams.org/